"The mental hospitals will be overrun" because of the Rauner cuts, another man said, to which Harmon added, "Cook County jail will be overrun."

"I don't understand" how bad it is, "like you guys," said Lilly, speaking to those who had described their situations.

One of these spoke up in a voice barely audible, in brown cap and wine-dark shirt-jacket from the rear of the room: "The governor don't care about us." He offered a strategy of group involvement and pressure.

Lilly agreed: "You've heard that saying, 'There's power in numbers.'"

A woman analyzed the situation: "The governor wants a balanced budget. It's what he was elected to do. . . . The [President] Reagan cuts only trickled down." She said she would have "rallies like this in Republican districts. Arguments about compassion won't work, because he [Rauner] doesn't care."

Republicans "don't give a damn," she said. "They care about nothing but money."